


Melker

by LapizSagana



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-26 10:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14998664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapizSagana/pseuds/LapizSagana
Summary: Ed has one week left in the military, people think Al is cheating on Mei Chang with a girl from his university, and crime scenes with dead bodies lead them to something Hohenheim started in the past that they must now finish. And that university girl, Ms. Melker? Ed doesn't like her very much, at least in the beginning.





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

Alphonse listened to Winry narrate in detail over the phone how Mei Chang had helped Granny Pinako recover from the flu. She made exaggerated comments about alkahestry and the wisdom of the Xingese, all of which, he knew, would later boil down to her pressuring him into marry Mei Chang before their geographical distance could strain their relationship.

As Winry's story was coming to a close, Al formulated in his mind how he could best explain to her that Mei Chang and him were doing fine just as they were. He pondered if it could ever be possible to tell her without it causing offense that just because her romance with Edward didn't go well did not mean his would fade out for the same reasons.

Al scratched his right eyebrow as he laughed when he should and made remarks as she expected him to. The window beside the table where the telephone sat gave him a calming view of the city, and he was grateful for the distraction.

It was too bright a day for a scolding.

"She set out to Central to fetch something for Ling and then she'll return to Xing," Winry said. The clangor of metal on the other end of the line told him that she was multi-tasking. "She's carrying a gift from me to Lan Fan and some fruits she likes. I hope she can visit you in East City. It's only a half-day away from Central. I even suggested she stay there for a month if she's not busy. Kinda like before when she was helping us nurse you back to health."

Al couldn't help but smile at the memory. Not long after the defeat of Father, Colonel Mustang - now Brigadier-General - and his unit assisted him and Ed with the technicalities of their new lives. Ed was still the Fullmetal Alchemist and had to continue his service to the military for the duration of his contract, and because he was busy making ends meet for them as they were forced to finally settle into an apartment in the city, General Mustang and his unit took it upon themselves to look out for him.

The months had spilled one into another then, with different faces entering Al's field of vision from one morning to the next depending on who was available. Winry lived with Ed and him for several months, but her growing popularity in the field of automail necessitated her presence in other cities often.

Lt. Hawkeye took charge on her days off, and put the now retired Lt. Havoc on a strict schedule to help Al recover from his physical atrophy through therapy. General Mustang made surprise visits, too, much to Edward's annoyance, which was mostly out of a difficulty to admit that the older man had been like a father to them in his discreet ways. What the general could not contribute in cooking, cleaning, or nursing, he made up by making sure Ed was not away on assignments for more than a week at times. He was also responsible for influencing the landlord to allow them to rent their two-bedroom apartment with a living room and a kitchen at a fair price.

Edward being preoccupied with his workload as state alchemist, Lt. Hawkeye automatically deducted their rent, water, and electricity from his salary and made the payments for them during the first year. It was only nine months ago, when Ed and Al sorted their obligations and made the calculations that they figured hardly anything had been taken from his salaries at all.

Ed had glowered at the statement of accounts scattered across the table then, upset to be at the receiving end of other people's charity without him asking for it, and Al attempted to comfort him by pointing out that he was at the forefront of saving the entirety of Amestris.

"Perhaps this is their way of showing their gratitude, brother," Al told him.

Alphonse's recovery made a startling leap at the arrival of Mei Chang. She had been fourteen years old but growing fast. Ling had granted her leave at the Xing court to look after him, sending her as an official emissary of the Emperor as a means of thanking the brothers for helping them build a bond with Amestris.

Beneath the formality to validate the princess' absence, they all knew Ling allowed her to go because she wanted to. It was on her fifteenth birthday - when Alphonse could stand at long intervals and require little assistance from anyone even during trips outside the apartment - that he finally had the courage to lay down his intention to court her.

Mei Chang had stood stock still for a moment after hearing those words out of his mouth, and had only reacted when he reached out to touch her cheek. Her shoulders rose and her eyes welled up. She said she went to East City only with the sincerest of intentions to see him back in good health and now she was receiving more than an assurance that he was well. She vowed she was the luckiest Xingese princess in existence.

It was  _that_  kindness, that honesty, which made Al embrace her and promise to take care of her for as long as he lived. She had grown out of her fantasies and acted on the goodness of her heart, and she did not know it but he was the one who was lucky.

"I know she's just turning sixteen soon, but you can propose now and get married after she's a bit older," Winry said. Her tone was almost pleading, as though begging him to save their relationship from the train wreck hers had been with Ed.

Alicia stood beside him to catch his attention. He glimpsed her from the corner of his eye and mouthed an apology. "Winry, you'll be the first to know once I've bought the ring. I promise. Send my regards to Granny Pinako and tell her to get as much rest as she needs, okay?"

"I'm holding you to that promise, Alphonse," she said. "And please tell Ed to oil his leg regularly. I told him to call me once he's home from his assignment, but it's been two weeks and he hasn't rang yet. Is he alright? Anyway, I'll schedule a visit soon."

"Brother's fine. He's just busy with night classes."

"Alright, Al. I trust your word."

"I'm glad you two are still good friends."

There was a silence on her end. "We always will be. Now go. I've held you up long enough. Bye, Al." He lowered the receiver and turned to Alicia with an apologetic smile. "Sorry for taking so long. Winry would tell brother if I missed her call on a Sunday, so I thought it better to call first. They both know I'm usually at the apartment at this time."

Alicia slipped on her coat and gloves. "You know I don't mind if you make yourself at home, Al. I'm just itching to run to the university because the professor needs something done by tomorrow morning."

He pulled on his long-sleeves and buttoned it up. "Will you be fine going there on your own?"

Alicia made a face as she walked past him and into her bedroom. She handed him his gloves as though they were a prize. "It's broad daylight. I'll be fine on my own. Besides, we've been seen walking around together too often. James and Lucy asked me the other day if we're a couple. I don't like people getting suspicious."

Alphonse straightened his coat and put on his gloves as he followed her to the door. "Those two know I have a girlfriend."

Alicia opened the door for him and stepped aside with a bow. "That's why it's best if the future prince of Xing exits the building in a hurry so I can follow in a bit and avoid being late to the university."

 

* * *

 

Monday. Again.

Ed glowered at the calendar at the back of their front door. Upon reaching the last five months of his contract with the military, Al had pinned the bank's free calendar there so he could mark the days before Ed would be free from his assignments and the danger that came with them.

Today, they were down to exactly a week before he was due to surrender his silver watch.

The box encircled with a red marker seemed to have eyes that searched him, the same searching eyes as those of that bastard brigadier general who kept on asking him what plans he had for the future. For the past months, he'd had to endure Mustang's endless musing as to how scary the world outside the military was, especially for state alchemists who had trouble finding their place in a world scared of alchemy.

Of course, Ed understood the old man was just taunting him because he'd soon have no reason to be ordering him around, but that did not stop him from biting back and snatching the dossier of his next assignment off his desk so he could escape.

In spite of this, Ed had to admit, he was beginning to have moments wherein he'd just look around the office or the corridors and be flooded with nostalgia. The military compound had been home to him regardless of what dire memories he'd had there and, truth be told, he never imagined what life would be like outside this norm of uncertainties and danger he'd grown up in.

He twisted the knob of the front door, remembered his research paper, and fished it from his bag. He left the bundle of papers on top of their dining table with a note to Al to pass it on to his airhead of a professor. He could've woken up Al because it was half-past six, but he was snoring loudly from their bedroom and had ink marks on his cheek where he'd fallen asleep on his notes.

Lately, his younger brother's been out 'til late supposedly 'studying' and was unusually tired from it. Ed probed the matter in honest concern for Al's health, but when he was waved off with a couple of lame excuses, he realized he was beginning to keep secrets of his own. Not that Ed should mind. Al was nineteen and getting his life together. He just hoped he wasn't up to anything stupid.

Working neighbors greeted Ed as they rushed out of their apartments with some still buttoning up their blazers, brushing their hair, or tearing apart a burnt toast pinned between their front teeth.

Ed's stomach churned at the sight of food. This was what he hated about Al waking up late. They decided to save money by eating out only when they had no choice, and Ed considering this as part of having no choice since he couldn't call his cooking a proper meal when all he made only looked good but tasted bad.

He rounded the corner of their block, pushing aside thoughts of walking the same road but without the military's leash, and got his fix of coffee and croissant at Minnie's Cafe. The owner, a twenty-five year old entrepreneur, saw him as he entered. She yelled for a waitress to pack 'the short but cute one's usual'. If not for the latter adjective, even Al wouldn't have been able to stop him from making a wreck of this place the first time they went here two years ago. But Minnie, who had dwarfism, meant well and teased him as a means of making light of their frustration with their height. He admitted to himself, cruel as it may be, that he felt he had no right to complain about being only as tall as Al's ears if Minnie could run a successful establishment amidst the jokes and criticism people threw at her.

He handed his payment on the counter but Minnie shooed him. "Working students need healthy meals to succeed in life," she said. "I'm not about to make you pay for that healthy meal."

Ed munched on the croissant. "Better not let the university hear that or else students might start protesting."

She raised her middle finger before scurrying to the other end of the counter where a customer was asking for the price of freshly baked bread.

Eastern Command was a good six blocks from the cafe, giving him enough time to finish his breakfast and get a clear mind before prepping himself for the day's work. He gulped down half his coffee, brushed off the crumbs that clung to his long-sleeves and vest, and entered the office with a grumble instead of a greeting.

Lt. Marie Gordon swatted Havoc's hand from her cup of coffee, put down the receiver and commented on his promptness. She followed his line of sight to the desk at the corner of the outside office. "The general won't trust anyone else with enquiries relating to alchemy. He told me to tell you to please finish that by tomorrow afternoon, as well as the report on your other assignments."

"The bastard's enjoying the final days of my servitude."

Havoc winked at him. "He won't admit it, but he's getting separation anxiety from his favorite state alchemist."

It was a sight Ed might never get used to - Havoc out of uniform. He retired over a year ago but still frequented the office as per Mustang's requests, and although they wouldn't divulge anybody with the details of their discussions, he had no doubt it had something to do with Mustang's promise to Dr. Marcoh to help rebuild Ishval. Havoc's body language and attempts to be discreet gave Ed all the confirmation he needed on this regard.

"Favorite my ass."

"It's true, boss." Havoc followed Ed to his desk - the mere existence of which was a constant reminder of his nearing departure - and sat on the edge of it. Ed watched it exhale at Havoc's weight.

They'd provided him with this old thing two weeks ago, when military law prohibited Mustang from sending him on assignments outside the city. Ed had to dig his head in some dusty files instead and make summarized reports on all assignments accomplished for the military for the duration of his service. When Hawkeye told him about that stupid law at the advent of this desk, he'd considered renewing his contract if only to avoid paperwork.

Breda took the entire pot of freshly brewed coffee to his desk. "We'll all miss you, chief, but the general does have strange ways of showing his affections. Did I tell you about the time he told children to knock on my door and sing a birthday song to me so I'd give them money?"

Fuery looked up from the radio he was tweaking, an oil grease lingering above his brow. "He did that to you, too?"

Ed sat on the swivel chair and turned once. "Say, is this paperwork really necessary or is he just torturing me?"

Gordon pinned a note on the bulletin board. "Paperwork's necessary, Major Elric. If you want, though, you can pass on the less complicated assignments to me and I'll be the one to put them in standard format for you. Working under Lt. Colonel – I mean, Colonel Hughes gave me enough exposure to alchemy to recognize which ones are far beyond my intellectual capacity."

"Really? Wow, lieutenant. I couldn't be more grateful you got transferred to this team." Ed cut the stack in half and pushed it towards the edge of his desk. "Is this too much?"

Havoc waved his hand between the two of them. "Hey, hey, now wait a minute. You never offered to do any such favors for me back in military school, Marie. Why so different with the boss, huh?"

"Major Elric is just starting to live his life and he needs all the support he can get."

Havoc squinted at her and took a cigarette from his front pocket. "My life nearly ended due to paralysis and I'm just starting to get back on my feet here and you don't think I need the support?"

Gordon returned to her seat. "You want me to support your romantic fantasies. That's completely immature. The major never made such advances towards me in the entire year we've worked together."

Havoc gripped Ed's shoulder. "You're not using your childish charm and alchemical genius to steal my girl, are you?"

Ed slapped his hand away. "If I have to sit through another one of your love quarrels, I'll gladly work in the library instead."

Breda passed on some documents to Gordon with a short remark on Central's uptight but useless rules. "I bet you'll find yourself a girl once you've got some free time in your hands, chief. Make sure to invite us to the wedding."

"I've got too many problems sustaining the rent and keeping up with my stupid professors to spare a dime on dinner with some girl who thinks alchemy is magic," he said.

Gordon leaned back on her chair with a strained smile towards Ed. "Don't worry, Major Elric, there are plenty of girls who do pay high respect to alchemy as a powerful resource for the advancement of peace in Amestris."

Havoc pointed at her. "You better not be referring to yourself, Gordon, or I swear I'll not marry you when you ask."

Gordon cut herself short of what she was saying and stood in attention. "General's here."

"How do you always know?" Feury and Havoc asked in unison.

The door opened that moment, and the rest of the unit saluted Mustang as he marched across the room to get to the inner office. Hawkeye motioned for them to be at ease. Havoc raised his hand as greeting and said, "Morning sickness, sir?"

Mustang glimpsed him from the corner of his eye but didn't stop in his strides. "In my office, Havoc. And you, Elric, that's long overdue."

"Fuck you, Mustang. This was dropped on my desk yesterday."

Mustang slammed the door shut behind him, nearly catching Havoc's nose. They all turned to Hawkeye for an explanation, but instead of her usual facade that dismissed Mustang's tantrums, she scowled at the direction of the inner office. Noticing the stares, she motioned for Havoc to follow Mustang and said, "There was an attempt at Dr. Marcoh's life. We found out from Colonel Hughes on the way here. The suspect attacked at night and couldn't be identified. If Scar hadn't been there, the suspect may have succeeded. Fuery, make sure we're updated as to the status of the soldiers in Ishval and who among General Wicker's men are being assigned as bodyguard to the doctor."

"Those soldiers shouldn't be in uniform if you ask me," Ed said as he propped his feet up on the desk and intertwined his fingers behind his head.

Hawkeye went over to Gordon to check on today's schedule. "They're in uniform so whoever in Ishval wants to start a fight will know there will be consequences if they harm a citizen of Amestris."

"Sounds like a formula for another war."

Breda prepared to brew another round of coffee. And it was barely half-past nine. "The collaboration in rebuilding the infrastructures won't be possible if Fuhrer Grumman didn't release the command. We're hardly getting any civilian volunteers since majority still has the wrong impression on Ishvalans. Besides, the local volunteers are also in uniform for the same reason."

"Didn't stop someone from attempting to take out the doctor," Ed said.

Gordon moved to Fuery's desk to grab the sheet of paper he just finished writing on. "Do we have any idea who would want the doctor dead?"

"Both camps will have multitude of reasons to want Dr. Marcoh out of the picture," Breda said. "Corrupt officials and the businessmen they partner with are at the top of the list, seeing as they're the ones most affected by the military putting an end to Ishvalan trafficking. Labor costs are double what they pay Amestrian workers. If they can get Ishval in a state of disarray, it will be too easy to resume the trafficking."

Gordon paused from her work, frowning at a thought she had. "Trafficking doesn't compensate the ring leaders enough for the corresponding death penalty they'll face if caught. Ninety-percent of Ishvalans are already capable of maintaining a three-meal a day lifestyle. What other merit would an Ishvalan gain by eliminating Dr. Marcoh?"

"It gets the military out of Ishval." Ed could imagine the daily tension between the two races. "No matter the fuhrer's good intentions of supplying them with the manpower and the materials they need to rebuild their cities - we all know they're short on both - most Ishvalans are too traumatized by war to be so welcoming of any help from the military."

"The attempt can't just be a personal vendetta - not if the suspect managed to escape from Scar and remain unidentified," Hawkeye said.

"That's a good point." Ed picked up his pen and started the first of many reports he had to rewrite. He wouldn't have minded doing Mustang's bidding by going there on an assignment as Dr. Marcoh's bodyguard if only his contract permitted it. He belatedly realized the bastard must be feeling short of capable men at a time like this, hence his frustration. "Must be why Mustang's on edge."

Hawkeye collapsed on her seat. The sound of her weight dropping on the chair made Ed look at her for several moments. It was unlike the lieutenant to be so graceless. They all had bad days, but something about her own temperament today seemed...off.

In spite of the rough start, the day droned on as usual. Ed kept a book on supersymmetry and invariants open on his lap so he could read while moving his pen just enough to give the impression of working. At lunch time, he joined Breda and Gordon in the mess hall where he could openly read and annotate while shoving food into his mouth.

The pressure to study came not as much from the difficulty of the classes he took than the need to make the most out of the money he was spending on a university degree. Al had managed to snag a scholarship without difficulty, but even the military couldn't get him one since he had time only for night classes. Hughes persuaded Mustang to arrange for the university to cut him some slack when it came to deadlines, and the asshole had been quick to gloat at his successful negotiation with the dean.

The coffee on his desk came and went as per Gordon's mindfulness of him. He reached for the cup and emptied it without taking notice, and would later find it filled to the brim again with a fresh brew. By the time his eyes were dry and hurting from the reading, he had managed to finish half of the book and only a quarter of his real work.

He rubbed his nape and looked around, not realizing when Breda and Gordon left the office. Fuery had headphones blocking the world around him, still deep into whatever he was listening to.

Ed checked the clock. It was eight in the evening.

Hawkeye stepped out of the inner office. She held the door open for Ed. "The general wants a word with you, Edward."

"If he's only going to vent his stress at me, I won't hold myself responsible for any injury he might incur, okay?"

Hawkeye suppressed a smile as she let him pass and closed the door for him. Mustang transferred from his desk to the couch facing the fireplace, a neat pile of documents waiting for him on the coffee table. He glanced over his shoulder and said, "Sit down, Fullmetal."

"No, thanks. Office work's got me feeling older than I really am."

Mustang snickered. "Unless you can find a job that requires you hunting in a field, you have to get used to sitting behind a desk. Speaking of which, you still haven't told me your plans once you hand in your watch."

Ed moved towards the fireplace for warmth. He and Mustang may have been at odds for most of the time they knew each other, but for the two and a half years following the Promised Day and perhaps as a result of them both growing older, he had learned to accept whatever responsibility Mustang felt for dragging him and Alphonse into the military. Mustang, too, must've learned by now that Ed's indifference did not hold as much bearing as it did when he was younger, their bickering now done more out of norm than anything else.

Ed sat on the floor in front of the fire, briefly noting before he focused on the flames that there were two glasses on the table already filled with ice cubes. "Al's got an offer to transfer to a university in Central. They have better facilities and resources there."

"That's interesting progress on Alphonse's part, but I asked about you, Ed," he said. "Every time any of us inquires about your plans, you always bring up Al first."

He screwed up his brows at the realization. "Can't help it. I lived most of my life worrying about him."

"It's safe to say you haven't considered your options yet beyond finishing university, yes?"

"...You make it sound like I've got plenty of options in the first place."

"With a mind like yours, of course you do." Mustang signed a document, set it aside, and poured Scotch. The ice cubes made an inviting noise. "But I'd like to think my offer could outweigh them all."

Ed turned on the floor. The scent of whisky was difficult to ignore, but so was the memory of Mustang trying to get him drunk for blackmail purposes. "If you're thinking I'll renew my contract, then you've lost your mind."

Mustang waved the glass in the air. "I'm only going to say this once - you are indeed a loss to my team especially that you're leaving at a critical time for the military. Now that I've given you praise that would suffice to bloat your ego for ten lifetimes - "

Ed reached for the bottle of Scotch and weighed it in his hand. Half-empty. "Are you drunk, Mustang? Should the lieutenant be warned that you're turning into a drunkard?"

"Lt. Hawkeye is stepping down from her position as my adjutant and bodyguard."

Ed felt his jaw slacken as he watched Mustang sort out the papers as though he had not just declared a major shift in his unit. The loss of Lt. Hawkeye by his side was unfathomable - those two had always been a pair since Ed entered the military. He put down the bottle. "Okay, Mustang, what did you do to her?"

The older man's calm visage broke at that. He glowered at Ed. "It's quite offensive that you would jump to the conclusion that I'm at fault with regards to this turn in - "

"Logically, it can't be the lieutenant's fault."

"Fine, fine." Mustang piled up the papers and set them aside, topping them with his capped sign pen. "The military is struggling with the changes in our relationship with Ishval, and I couldn't trust anybody else with heading a program that could either be a positive contributor to the peace we're aiming at or a target for its downfall - but this is one move we can't dodge. Have you ever heard of the Orphans of War?"

"If I had, I might've forgotten already. Sounds too flashy if it's coming from the military."

"It was a program run during the Ishval war, wherein doctors took in orphans both Amestrian and Ishvalan to be cared for under the roof of the same orphanage. They were secretly being supported by the government, with little question raised at first because the doctors and teachers there came from both races. It was going well until one night, all orphans and personnel in the orphanage died," he said. "The reports said the Ishvalan orphans from the slums carried a contagious disease with them and, the doctors afraid of spreading it, had quarantined everybody including themselves in an attempt to contain it while they searched for a cure. By then, however, it was too late and they were discovered around four days after their deaths. The orphanage has been sealed off and guarded as a protest rose from Amestrians against mixing them with Ishvalans. Any attempt at philanthropy afterwards had been disregarded in fear of worsening the war."

Ed took his glass of Scotch and drank. "According to the reports, right? We both know the fuhrer was capable of inhumanities to that degree if it would strengthen his cause for destroying Ishval."

"The confidentiality of the incident is preventing me from digging deeper into the matter as quickly as I would like, but I've made myself aware enough to know I'll be needing your expertise to determine exactly what happened so the new program under Lt. Hawkeye can proceed smoothly," he said.

Ed paused from downing the remainder of his Scotch, realizing then why he was hearing this. "You think it wasn't a deadly disease?"

"For all of them to die like that in one night is unheard of," Roy said. "Havoc's made enquiries for me on the blocked out portion of the confidential reports regarding the orphanage. Witnesses who claimed to have seen a flash of light and heard something like inhumane screaming had died of accidents within the five months succeeding the event."

" _Alchemy_." The word left Ed's mouth like a reflex. "You think it was human transmutation?"

"We don't have enough evidence or any witnesses to support that theory, but it's not unlikely," he said. "Listen, Fullmetal, this is not a decision I just came up with overnight. If I had a choice in it, I wouldn't drag you back to it, but I thought I may as well ask given the circumstances. Lt. Hawkeye will need as much help as she can in this arena, and no one quite qualifies like you do. The military will be involved in funding it, but Hughes and I are making sure they have no legal hold over the program once the funds have been released. This means neither of you will be part of the military, but you will receive regular monthly income for the duration of the program and you'll be responsible for your schedule. Apart from it being strategically ideal, the children who will be benefitting from this program often struggle with connecting with even doctors and teachers - most of whom have not seen war or experienced the loss these children have. A presence like yours might make a difference if you just take a chance."

Ed took the poker and stoked the fire. "So you want me to move from state alchemist to babysitter, huh?"

"Did you even listen to what I said?"

"You're not telling me something, Mustang." Ed pointed the poker at him. "You wouldn't let go of Lt. Hawkeye if it weren't advantageous for you, and so far no other role for her has rivaled being adjutant to you as you ascend to power. It's either she's finally had it with you or this job is more dangerous than any assignment - "

"Riza is pregnant."

Ed dropped the poker, barely keeping the glass from slipping from his other hand. Mustang clinked glasses with Ed and grinned, a faint blush spreading across his face. "I proposed to her a month ago. She's already two months in. You're right - no role has proved more advantageous to both her and me until now."

The entire conversation repeated itself in Ed's mind with this fact in play. The laughter bubbled in his throat until he couldn't help but let it out. "I have to give it to you, Mustang. You're one good manipulator of military law and politics. That was one long, valid speech you gave and you even dragged me into it instead of just admitting that you  _did_  do something to her!"

Mustang sighed. "You never fail to make me regret being honest with you, Edward."

Ed wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt and poured Mustang more Scotch. "But kidding aside, congratulations, Mustang. Do your best to not suck at being a father."

He reclined on the couch, and now that his face was clearly visible, Ed could see hints of amusement in his eyes. "So, do you accept?"

Ed stared into his glass. Working again on a case that could be related to human transmutation was something he would rather avoid, but the man did make a good point. All his years of bad experiences could amount to some good, if not for him ultimately, then to the children who suffered from the mistakes of the adults around them. It had all the comfort and mental stimulation he could ever ask for in a life outside the military - salary, field work, and direction - all of which had been a blur to him until Mustang made the offer.

Ultimately, it was the notion of Riza becoming a mother that made it impossible to refuse. The underlying danger of this program put Riza and her baby at risk, and his conscience could not take it if anything happened to them when he had the choice to ensure nothing ever would. The bastard father-to-be knew just how to push his buttons to get the response he wanted, and Ed knew he would give it. "On one condition," he said.

Mustang leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his fingers intertwined before him as though he was closing a military negotiation. "Let's hear it."

"If the baby's a boy, name him after me."

The door burst open at that moment. Red balloons came flying in. Hughes waltzed to the office wearing a party hat and carrying boxes of pizza, with Breda and Havoc trailing behind with cases of beer. Sciezka and Gordon rolled in a tray of delicacies. Falman, still in his winter coat, lugged in a box in gift wrap, with Feury holding on to the other end. Hakweye was the last to step in, cradling in her arms Black Hayate in a blond wig that resembled Ed's hairstyle and the red coat he'd worn as a teenager.

"Edward, my boy!" Hughes dropped the boxes of pizzas on the table. He put a party hat on top of Ed's head, which he managed to straighten in spite of his attempts at jerking his hands away. "Did Roy do a good job at keeping you too preoccupied to notice us outside the office?"

The rest of Mustang's unit proceeded to position around the fire what they were carrying. Hawkeye lowered Black Hayate to the floor. Ed noted the slight bump in her abdomen, but if not for Mustang admitting she was pregnant, anybody would've thought she had just eaten one cake too many.

The dog ran up to him and licked his face. "W-what...what is this all for?" Ed asked.

Havoc plopped on the couch next to Mustang. "Did you really think we were letting you go without a proper farewell party?"

Breda shoved a beer in Ed's hand, remarking on the empty glass of scotch and praising Mustang for getting him warmed up on the drinks. How they managed to haul in that many bottles of beer without getting caught was beyond him, but it was not impossible given the feats they'd achieved before. Breaking rules in Eastern Command wouldn't have made them blink.

Falman sat next to Ed on the floor to warm himself and announced that he was returning to East City under the brigadier's command for good. The big box was a collection of presents from those in Briggs who heard of Ed's retirement and wanted to wish him good luck.

The aroma of food, the orange glow about the room, and the cheerful chatter about the great things Ed would do along with some mishaps they expected from him especially when it came to girls, overwhelmed him. When he was twelve, sitting on a wheelchair without his arm and leg, staring out the window for days, this was not a sight he could've ever conjured for himself. He was starting to think that in spite of his mistakes, perhaps he  _did_  deserve to be happy.

"Where's Alphonse?" Hawkeye turned to Hughes and Havoc for an explanation. The latter said he rang the apartment thrice and even went to the university to check if he had been outdoing himself again in the library, but one of the students he spoke to said Al had walked out of the university with a girl named Alicia at around four in the afternoon. "He might be preoccupied with research stuff as usual, but it's unlike him to miss anything involving Ed."

The name Alicia sounded familiar to him. He remembered eating dinner with Al some nights and hearing that name from his mouth, although he couldn't quite remember at which topics she was brought up.

An awkward silence began to settle in the group. Ed opened the first box of pizza to distract everybody. It was one thing for him as Al's older brother to suspect him of cheating on Mei Chang, but for the entire team to consider that notion was something he couldn't allow. "Let him be!" Ed said. "I'd be more concerned if he was sticking to my side instead of living his life like he's supposed to."

A knock on the door made them all turn. Sciezka put down her beer bottle with a quick 'that must be him' and hurried to the outer office. As Fuery was passing around paper plates and plastic spoons and forks, Al stumbled inside behind Sciezka and scanned the room for Ed. His face lit up when he saw him. "Brother!"

He rubbed the back of his head as he approached. "Sorry I'm late. They weren't finished with the engraving when I arrived at the shop." He sat on the armrest where Hughes was positioned and handed Ed the suitcase. "It's for you, brother. I figured you could do with a new one."

Edward took in his disarray of hair and the creases on his clothes, how it was unlike him to be so unkempt regardless if he was in a rush or not. He accepted the gift with a 'thanks, Al', barely keeping himself from asking what was really running through his mind.

_What's happening to you, little brother?_


	2. Chapter 2

Roy had not expected to make drastic turns in his plans at this stage of his career. After the events of the Promised Day and his sight returned, however, it was as if he was looking at the world from brand new eyes.

The first time he laid eyes on Riza again, with whom he had unconsciously held hands when they used the Philosopher's Stone to cure his blindness, it struck him how stupid he had been for the years he had not truly seen _her_.

Flashbacks of her near-death experiences only strengthened his belief that her worth encompassed that of a leading supporter to his goal of becoming fuhrer. She lived a life devoted to him and the wellbeing of their country, and although he possessed an underlying knowledge that he was committed to her, his decision to put the military above all else had made him inept at ever expressing himself in the way she deserved.

Now, driving home to his townhouse with her at his side and their baby growing inside her, he knew he made the right choice. He could still see the emotions on her face when they confirmed her pregnancy, and what horror he thought he initially saw was replaced by that of relief. She sat on the edge of the hospital bed in the office of a trusted doctor, held her stomach, and closed her eyes. In the silence of the room, he heard her clearly when she whispered, "Grow strong.”

What qualms they had about proceeding with their marriage and making her head of the program was silenced by the fact that they were going to be parents soon. Now they had no choice but to let her step down from her military life to serve the country in a new way, but whatever uneasiness Roy felt in not having her around in the office was silenced by the knowledge that at least he had her in his life for good.

"What are you smiling about, sir?"

Roy turned from the window to face her. She drove with the sharpness of a soldier heading out for a man-hunt - a quality he found amusing. "Drop the formality, Riza. It's awkward."

"Sorry." A pinch of a scowl touched her brows. "It'll take time to get used to not addressing you so formally."

"But all these years you had no trouble scolding me in front of everybody. Twisted kind of respect you have for me, lieutenant."

His use of formality made them both pause and then break out into laughter. They were still familiarizing themselves with their new relationship, and switching from one to another as they went in and out of work was taking longer than they expected.

Riza turned on the curb. "So what did Edward say about the offer?"

"The brat accused me of doing something to you to get you to step down."

"Technically, sir, he's correct, ," she said. "You got me pregnant."

"Why are the two of you making it sound like I forced you because the concept of you falling head over heels for me is impossible?"

Riza reached out to touch his hand. "I'm past the point of falling head over heels for your looks, Roy. I'm steadily in love with you, and this baby is the best thing that's ever happened to me yet."

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. "The best thing next to me, of course."

"Nope." Riza parked the car in front of his town house. "The baby first, then you. You could've stayed on top if only you married me first and then got me pregnant a couple of months after. But no, you had to follow Havoc's advice."

Roy got out of the car. He propped his arm on the roof and looked across it to see her. "How in the world did you know?"

"It's offensive that you think I wouldn't know. Close the door, sir." She rounded the car and locked it. "It's my job to keep your men in check and to know when they're keeping secrets. Havoc's made a bad habit of staring at my abdomen for the past six months, and after we confirmed my pregnancy and belatedly the need for me to resign, all I had to do was point a gun at this now-civilian man and make him confess."

A cold sweat ran down Roy's spine at how strategic the love of his life had been in her approach to this matter. Havoc had gone on a drinking spree during his first month as a retired soldier, and Roy being the good commanding officer that he was, kept up with the other man at the bar.

It was in one of their not-so-sober conversations that Roy admitted his fear that Riza would never choose him over her career, to which Havoc suggested that getting her pregnant was the only means he could force her retirement _and_ put a ring on her.

 _‘Can’t you see, general?’_ Havoc waved his hand in front of Roy’s eyes as though testing his vision. _‘The lieutenant showcases Black Hayate everywhere to send you a message that she likes looking after frail little things that bite. She doesn’t want to be a dog-owner – she wants to be a mother!’_

Roy unlocked his front door and went in before she did; another one of his bad habits as her superior. She didn't seem to mind though, and probably preferred it that way. Once the door was closed, he said, "It's not what it looks like. Are you mad at me?"

"It's exactly what it looks like." She shrugged off her coat and hung it on the coat rack. "And yes, at first I annoyed, but then I think I would've missed out on this opportunity altogether if you two idiots hadn't forced me into this situation."

Roy frowned at her choice of terms. He squeezed past her in the narrow corridor, unconsciously reaching down to her stomach to shield the baby from hitting the nearby table. He flicked his fingers to light the fireplace. "For the record, you're the one who dragged me to bed the first time. And that was before Havoc made his suggestion."

Riza glanced at him from over her shoulder. "Oh, please. You were seconds away from saying 'please'. I merely saved you from sounding like a deprived boy."

"Well, the truth is I've deprived myself for far too long." He kissed the top of her head. "Anyway, the Fullmetal brat will agree to aiding you in the program on one condition I can never agree to."

Riza blinked up at him. "What condition?"

"He wants our baby to be named after him if it's a boy." The second those words left his mouth, he knew he was going to regret ever telling her. All too quickly, he was reminded that while he was the first to show concern for the wellbeing of the Elrics during their stay in East City, it had been her who planned how they were going to assist the brothers.

The Elrics would never know, but Riza touched her savings to give them a comfortable living. From the moment she made that decision, Roy didn't have a choice but to spare money for them as well. It had been in one of their discussions about how they would look after Alphonse while Ed was away on an assignment that he realized Riza had always looked after the Elrics in her subtle ways. Havoc’s drunken speech made sense to him then.

Riza removed her brooch and shook her hair loose. "And if we're having twins, we can name one after Alphonse, too."

Roy sighed, knowing he couldn't persuade her otherwise once she's made up her mind. He wrapped his arms around her and tucked her head under his chin. "If our son doesn't grow as tall as me, you know it's your fault for naming him after the pipsqueak."

Riza chuckled against his chest. "The most important thing is we get Edward to help us." She pulled away to look up at him. "The attempt on Dr. Marcoh is no light matter," she said. "Having Edward by my side will be of great comfort, especially now that we have evidence that there are still people determined to break the peace treaty between the two nations."

"We'll proceed with caution and take a cue as to the gravity of the matter from how things unfold from here onwards." Roy took off his own coat, handed it to her, and went to the kitchen to get her a glass of water. "It's time for your vitamins."

****

Ed feigned dizziness to hide his impatience. He felt the drive home was taking longer than usual, and his brain could not cope with suspense of a confrontation with Al. He’d never done this before because there had never been a need. They both kept secrets, but none they tried to hide with effort or lies. 

Havoc, while driving, droned on about the difficulty he faced after his retirement but assured Ed that it was not as bad as he might think. The lack of the usual adrenaline was the culprit, but after a while, he coped with the stability and safety of normal living. Besides, he said as he smiled at Ed through the rear-view mirror, working with him and Lt. Hawkeye on the program would be the perfect means to adjust.

That had been the surest way to throw out whatever intent Ed had of at least getting an honest answer from Alphonse as to his whereabouts that day. At Al’s prompting once they were inside their barely furnished apartment, Ed was forced to explain the offer Mustang made.

Al paused halfway through removing his red scarf and sat down at the mention of the program. They had a brief exchange about the theory of human transmutation being performed in the orphanage, to which Al declared his distaste at the use of innocent children for the military's gain.

Ed hesitated on telling Al about Hawkeye's pregnancy, but figured his brother's sharp mind would catch on the unusual choice the general made anyway.

Alphonse grinned at the confession. "I thought so."

"You thought so?" Ed asked as he undid the laces of his boots. "It's barely a bump yet."

"You forget I'm going to be a doctor someday." He brought out a book filled with loose papers and spread them on his lap. "We're trained to know these things. Besides, the way she’s been nagging me about our laundry soap kinda makes it obvious."

“Our laundry soap?”

“She called me to complain about your clothes,” he said. “She didn’t like how they smelled. So I switched to the brand she recommended.”

“Huh. I guess being pregnant makes girls crazy.” Ed studied his brother, still contemplating whether or not to ask. The leak from the ceiling that dripped on the tin can they placed on the floor sounded like the seconds of the late evening slipping away. "Test tomorrow, Al?"

"Yep. I think I've covered everything Professor Mckenzie ought to include but there's no harm in being sure," he said. "Go on ahead to bed. I might be up 'til two or something."

Ed slipped off his shoes and worked on rolling off his socks as he went to the bedroom. "Make sure you get four hours of sleep, at least." He missed his brother's response as he pulled the bedroom door half-shut. Stripping off his clothes until he was down to his boxers, he threw himself on the bed and tried to keep his anxieties at bay.

Looking after Al while he had been in armor was so different from looking after him now back in his body. Dr. Marcoh checked on him before leaving for Ishval, as he was the only one Ed trusted to make a proper assessment of Al since the old man pretty much knew their history. He had set Ed aside and told him Al might suffer from mental and emotional struggles apart from the apparent physical ones. The sensations of the world would be new to him, and they had to watch out for Al getting used to his vulnerabilities. Being in armor rendered him nearly invincible against most harm, and rewiring his brain to understand the limitations of his human body would take time and a couple of mishaps. Most importantly, though, Al would need Ed to be a stable source of strength. The maturity Al showcased in his years in armor might backlash now that he was in a fully-sensual body.

Ed buried his face on the pillow, listening beyond the door to Al turn pages and pour what smelled like coffee. Getting Al back to shape had been like teaching a child to walk - the difficulties of which he had no problem handling in terms of patience and due encouragement. It was getting used to Al's changing expressions and the clear rising and falling of his voice as his temper fluctuated that taxed Ed more than anything.

It was better now that Al had a grip of the emotions that once startled him, at the heart that beat fast when he was anxious or afraid, or how he thought it would burst after he first kissed Mei Chang. But Ed wasn't sure he would suffice as a stable source of strength for his brother, more so for the fact that it had taken an offer from Mustang for him to get a bit of direction.

The swarm of thoughts soon faded into a buzz, and then a hum before the darkness of sleep engulfed him fully. He wasn't sure how long he was asleep or how many times the phone rang before he came to.

He threw the blanket over his head and yelled for Al, whom he assumed was still studying in the living room, to answer the phone. When the ringing ensued, Ed sat up and scrambled to the door. The emptiness of the living room drew his eyes towards the coat rack, and he knew at once that Al had left. He made a sideways glance to the wall clock - three in the morning -before pressing the receiver against his ear and yelling, "What now?"

He expected to hear Fuery’s apologetic tone as he explained why he had to bother Ed at an ungodly hour, but the deep growl from Mustang startled him. It was enough to jolt him to full awareness. "You better be sober, Fullmetal."

"Why?" He searched the living room for any note from Al as to where he ran off to. He assumed when he saw none that Al could've just grabbed a bite from one of those 24-hour restaurants around the corner. After all, his hunger had been insatiable from the time he got his body back. "What happened, Mustang?"

"Get yourself down at Park Avenue. I'm calling you from home as I've just received the report from Hughes that a corpse with unusual marks at the back of his head had been found by a patrolling police officer," he said.

Ed stretched his foot to get his socks from where they lay scattered on the floor. "You think it's an array?"

"Hughes wouldn't be calling me if it didn't look suspicious."

He was already rolling up his socks but still he had to ask, "Can't it wait 'till morning? Or have you just grown too dependent on me for anything concerning alchemy since you've done nothing but sit behind a desk for years?"

Hawkeye's voice echoed from the other end, and Mustang told her to please wait. "Edward, this is not time for your jokes. I’ll drop by Park Avenue on my way to the office and I expect to find you there and investigating for me. Another thing - a corpse with burn marks on his hand similar to the one found on the head of the corpse in Park Avenue had just been reported from the apartment of a woman named Alicia Melker in Lawton Street. Lt. Gordon reports she's a med student at the university. Say, is Alphonse with you?"

Ed weighed that question. The haze of the early morning and the couple of beers he had gave rise to a sting in his temples, rendering him unable to decipher an honest question from a testing one. He had to take a risk. "Yeah, he's just fallen asleep. See you in the office."

He dashed into his bedroom to pull up his leather pants and a clean shirt from his wardrobe. It was only after he'd locked his apartment and was already climbing down the stairs two steps at a time that he realized he was only wearing a sock on his left foot. "Damn it, Al. Where are you?"

Ed shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat as the chill of the early morning blew against him. He shuffled his feet as he tried to think the situation through. Mustang lived approximately fifteen minutes from Park Avenue if he travelled by car, ten minutes more than the time it would take for Ed to arrive there if he walked. Lawton Street was three blocks ahead. If he sprinted through the alleys, he could be there in five minutes and assess the place before anybody from Mustang's team could realize he's made the detour. Of course, his attempt at discreetness would be futile if Breda or Gordon were at the crime scene, but he'd rather receive a scolding from Mustang than risk missing out on any hint of Al being there tonight.

Ed could hear the siren of the police cars while he was still a distance from Lawton Street. Already people were poking their heads out of apartment windows and sitting by the front steps of their building to pry on the commotion going on at an old apartment complex.

Ed maneuvered his way through the cluster of onlookers and slipped under the police line. An officer grabbed him by the shoulder to apprehend him. Ed shoved his silver watch against the man's face.

The police officer stared at it with a twisted frown. "We did not seek out the assistance of the military. This is a civilian case."

"I'm a State Alchemist, and last I heard, where there's an array on the hand of a corpse, I have the authority to look it over on behalf of my commanding officer and the inexperienced likes of the police." He tossed the silver watch in his hand as a means of fending off the other policemen already giving him surly looks.

Officer Megan ran over to him. He was a lanky man in his thirties and one of the few police officers Ed liked. A year ago, he asked for help on a minor case about a chain of thefts by a sneaky alchemist, and theirs had been a successful partnership. "Major Elric!" He bent on his knees to catch his breath. "I've just been to Park Avenue."

"You ran?"

"The car broke down on the way and Colonel Hughes said he'll call you up," he said. "I thought you'd be summoned there first."

"I may have been misinformed." Ed jabbed his thumb behind him. "Anyway, if the marks are similar then there's a huge chance the two cases are connected and I'm not wasting my time being here."

"Right, right." He waved for the officers by the door to let them pass. The corridor stank of burnt flesh and the sting of alchemy that still bit in the air. Ed covered his nose with the back of his hand. He climbed the stairs with Megan on the lead. "The owner of the apartment where the corpse was found is a young lady named Alicia Melker. Neighbors claimed to have seen her return home tonight, but she was not there when we arrived. Or at least, I haven't received word that they've found her inside the apartment or within the vicinity."

"Who called the police then?" Ed evaded the puddles on the floor, trying to recall if it had rained or not.

"A tenant came home late from work and saw the dead man lying on her threshold," he said. "It's as though he stepped through the door and got electrocuted trying to enter."

Megan pulled up the police line that boxed the corridor where the corpse lay shielded under a white blanket. Ed slipped past the line. He nearly gagged at the stench. One of the paramedics saw him and handed him and Megan masks.

Ed borrowed a pair of gloves from them also. He peered inside the apartment and asked why nobody had entered.

 Megan gave an embarrassed laugh. "It was out of a hunch, but remember you saved me from getting electrocuted while we were chasing a thief in his hideout? It kinda felt the same. Also, there was no sign of any weapon from the inside having been used to cook the man alive. It appeared he was electrocuted on the doorway given the scorch marks start and end here, so I insisted nobody entered without the go signal of an alchemist."

For a right-hand man of the chief inspector, Megan sure was too soft-spoken and good humored to be taken seriously. Ed thought at least it was apparent to everyone that there was a fully-functioning brain behind that smiling face.

"Good call," he said as he crouched next to the corpse. Drops of molten wax sat next to the body. Ed tipped his head back. A round scorch mark glared at him from the metal of the door frame. It must be from when the array was activated. He drew the design in his mind, revising the design based on the material used and the surface on which it was drawn. It was a simple enough array with the intention to sent a shock down whoever forced entry, supposing that a body part would be in contact one way or another to the line of metal that lined the wooden door frame. The question was how the array was activated in the first place.

Ed checked the perimeter of the metal for any hidden arrays, but thought that unless it was engraved, any hidden wax arrays would've also melted if the energy was enough to toast a man. Taking one cautious step across the door, he carried himself over to the other side and waited for something to happen.

Nothing.

He noted that from this angle, the top metal lining on which the array had been drawn was gaping. Ed checked the back of the door and confirmed his suspicions. A loose latch hung from the top of the door, on its tip a nail cut short of its body. Whoever set this up was not protecting a thing, but a person he supposed was Alicia Melker. She would bolt the chain whenever she was inside, so whoever tried to force their way in would dislodge the nail from where it was tucked behind the top metal lining of the door frame and create enough spark to activate the array. "Megan," he called. "Did it rain in the past hours?"

"No, major. There hasn't been rain at all today."

"There are puddles on the floor leading here. Isn't there a pond in Park Avenue?"

Megan made the connection in an instant. "Are you suggesting the victim came here drenched, hence the electrocution?"

"Huge chance of that, given the way the array was put up meant it didn't intend to kill anybody."

"Is it safe to enter?" Megan made a move to cross the threshold, but Ed put his hand up. The police and paramedic behind Megan froze as well. Ed told them he'd better check the rest of the apartment to make sure there would be no more human toast for the day.

The soonest Ed turned his back, he scanned the place for anything that could incriminate Al.

The technique used was one of the many safety measures they came up with as children playing with alchemy, some of which they applied during their travels whenever they felt unsafe.

 _Think fast, Ed._ If he were Al and he wanted to protect a girl or at least give her enough leeway to either call for help or escape, he'd have her go where she could put a barrier between the assailant and herself. Ed's eyes focused on the two doors ahead of him, one to the bedroom and one to the bathroom. Playing arrays where it could be marred by water or other chemicals was not the smartest idea. Besides, if the intruder did follow Alicia Melker into the bathroom and she used the environment to further fry him, there was no chance she wouldn't get scorched herself.

Ed made his way to the bedroom. The metal lining on the door frame warned him of the same trick, but the door was ajar and he couldn't think of any security measure that could be activated without it being closed and locked first. Unless, of course, Alicia was mindful enough not to fall for the traps even in her daily living. He kicked the door open. The chain connecting the nail behind the metal lining to the back of the door swung in the air.

Unlatched. When the intruder came in, where did Alicia go if she did not lock the bedroom door? Ed marched inside and saw the tip of the curtain caught in the window pane. He pressed his forehead against the glass to check the view outside. The emergency exit was two windows away, possible to risk making it there by jumping, but he doubted that's how Alicia vanished.

Even from this height, Ed could recognize the rough bump on the pavement in the alley as an alchemy-inspired mishap. He left Central with enough of those scars on roads and buildings for him to know one when he saw it.

Al must've shut the window to drive prying eyes away from the alley, but didn’t expect to catch the curtain in the process. Ed tugged at the light, blue cloth to free it. Now he understood the girl didn’t bother locking the door. She already had a savior ready to deliver her into safety.

_Al, what the fuck were you doing here tonight?_

Ed glimpsed the rest of the room. He took in the tidiness of the single bed, but somehow that did not bring him comfort. He'd been driven by lustful passion a handful of times in the past to know sex wasn't confined to a bed.

He spied a red scarf on the floor behind the door. He turned it over and focused on the initials embroidered at the end. A.E. This was Mei Chang's gift to him on his nineteenth birthday. He folded the scarf, flattened it along the line of his back, and tucked in his shirt to secure it.

Upon stepping out of the bedroom door, he announced that the coast was clear. The police and paramedics made cautious steps forward, and as more of them spilled into the apartment, the heavier their footfalls became.

Ed asked Megan for a pen and paper. Together they pulled the blanket over the corpse and studied the array on his palm. Had the engraving not been deep and prominent, he doubted he could’ve distinguished the array at all.  The sheer design told him Hughes wasn't overreacting when he suggested Ed joined the investigation. He copied the array on the paper, trying hard not to make it obvious that his fingers were trembling, and told Megan he would be running off to Park Avenue to meet the general if he was still there.

Once out of the building and out of sight of the police and onlookers, he dashed back to his apartment. Who cared about what Mustang would say to him for not appearing at Park Avenue? There could've been more than one intruder, and they may still be in pursuit of Al. Whatever he was hiding, Al was sensible enough to run to Ed if he was in danger. That was their agreement. He had to at least check their apartment to see if he was correct.

He had entered the code to the building when he realized any sane person running away from a threat would remain in the dark. Ed rushed to the fire exit which was concealed in the shade of the barely lit street behind the building. The drop of blood on the pavement made him pause. It was still fresh. He touched the ground and deconstructed the cement. He rummaged a nearby trash bin for any container with liquid and found a similar bottle of Scotch as that of the general’s. This would have to do.

He kept his eyes peeled for any sign blood as he made his way up to the fifth floor. The alcohol would suffice to cover the stain and the stench, but he rubbed it off with his boot for good measure. Once upstairs, he did the same on the hardwood of the corridor before unlocking his apartment.

A woman nearly collided with him, but she leapt backward fast enough to dodge. Al grabbed her by the arm and stepped in front of her.

They all three shared a moment of silence. Ed broke it by bolting the door behind him. He took in the sight of the girl he assumed was Alicia, assessing her as best he could. She looked out of breath and a little unbalanced, and her round spectacles only emphasized her glazed, brown eyes that stared back at him. Her hair was a long mess that reached to her waist, almost succeeding at hiding the blood on her blouse if only it weren’t white.  “I’m guessing you’re Alicia Melker from Lawton Street.”

“Brother, let me explain,” said Al.

“What’s with all the blood? What happened to you, Al?”

“I’m fine. It’s just a cut,” he said, gesturing to his injured arm. “And it’s already been well taken care of.”

"Yeah? By her?” Ed prodded his chin towards Alicia. “You so happen to be injured too?”

She lowered her head, trembling fingers clutching her blouse. “No, I’m fine. This is Al’s.”

"How did you get that injury?"

"Someone threw a knife at us while we were running," he said. "I would've fought back but I wasn't sure if he had accomplices who wanted to get to Alicia."

Ed pulled the curtains close. ""You sure you lost whoever that was?"

"The person stopped chasing us halfway through."

“Any idea who it could be?”

 "All I’m sure of is that somebody’s after Alicia,” he said. “I've been helping her out. We didn't know how serious it was until somebody barged into her apartment earlier."

The string of questions in Ed’s mind rendered him speechless for the next couple of seconds. The array at the man's palm, this strange girl coming to Al for help instead of the police, and his very presence at the crime scene…Ed wanted to ask, but he had to set them aside for more pressing concerns. "Can you at least tell me anything that helps?"

Alicia shook her head. "I don't know. Tonight's the first time I've actually seen anybody."

"Is that right? Tonight's the first time and there are already two corpses connected to you."

"Two corpses?"

"Another one at Park Avenue but with an array at the back of his head," he said, turning to Alicia. "You might want to try being honest now because I'm not buying into your cluelessness."

Al motioned for her to stay silent. "It's a long story, and I don't think we've got time to go into detail when an alchemist was after an innocent woman."

Innocent wasn't the first word that came to mind when describing someone hiding from a dead man who was probably a psycho with alchemic abilities, but he agreed that time was against them.

Ed pinched the bridge of his nose. When Al asked if he was okay, he pulled out the scarf from behind his shirt and shoved it against him. “Is this the only thing you left in her apartment? I didn’t have the luxury of time to scour for anything else that might point back to you.”

Al recognized the scarf in an instant. “What does it matter? She’s a victim.”

“It matters, Al, because we don’t know what this is about.”

“He normally doesn’t leave anything behind,” Alicia said. “Besides, whatever notes from class is in his handwriting shouldn’t get him in trouble. It’s not a secret that we’re both taking medicine.”

Ed transmuted the door to blend with the wall. That should throw off anybody who’d attempt to barge in on them. “Sorry, but I’m not referring to notes.”

“Pardon?” Alicia said.

Al covered his eyes with his hand, his lips tightly pursed. “What are you trying to say, Ed?”

The array from the man's palm lingered at the forefront of his mind, and his muscles tensed at the recognition of human transmutation in its design. Now might not be the right time to confront him. “I don’t want you involved in the police or the military, is what I’m trying to say.”

“Brother, I’m not having an affair with Alicia,” he said. “She’s not that kind of person, and I was the one who insisted on involving myself with her problem.”

Alicia pulled out a chair and sat. “This is making me nauseous.”

“Sure. Whatever you say, Al.” Ed took in the sight of the apartment and decided on a course of action. He fractured a wooden panel with the repeated stomping of his automail foot. The bloody bandages Alicia had gathered on top of a newspaper, he squeezed and rubbed on the crevices of the plank. Al asked what he was doing, but Ed ignored him as he removed the tin can and allowed the leak from the ceiling to wet the floor.

"You’re making it look like Al slipped and cut his arm on the wood," Alicia said. “But why? Won’t coming to the police with evidence that we were attacked by someone other than the dead man help?”

“I don’t want my brother involved, okay?  Al, burn your shirt in the fireplace." He turned to check if his brother had heard him. “What are you waiting for?”

“What are you planning, Ed? Why can’t we just call the general and tell him everything?”

“This is, first and foremost, a civilian case until I get my ass to Park Avenue and report that the array is anything but basic.” He sighed when his brother still wouldn’t budge. “Trust me on this. Just because I’m erasing you from the crime scene doesn’t mean I’ll feed your friend to the wolves.”

Al took off his shirt and tossed it into the fireplace. He hissed as the chill nipped at his bare skin, but he chose to burn the bandages and the cottons first before grabbing a new sweatshirt.

Ed saw Alicia turn her head away while Al was shirtless, the blush spreading across her face like fire. She focused on the growing puddle on the floor and remained as still as possible.

Her reaction confirmed two things to Ed, and he thought at least the time he spent enduring Mustang's jibes helped him hone his skills at reading people.

A woman sleeping around with a man wouldn't have been embarrassed so at seeing him naked. Her state of shock, too, provided enough comfort in Ed's mind that she could be safely called a victim. Her innocence, however, was still in question.  

Al, noting her own bloodied blouse, went to the bedroom and found a maroon work shirt Winry left behind. "I'm sorry, but we need to burn your blouse too. You can change in the bathroom.” As though struck by Ed’s sharp glance, he withdrew it from Alicia. “You don’t mind her using this, do you, brother?”

That was what Winry wore the afternoon they broke up. He remembered buying it for her in Central because while he had poor taste in women’s fashion, he did know what worked for her when she was amongst her gears and metals. The first time Ed saw it among their things; he realized she’d left it on purpose as her means of setting aside a bad memory. “…It’s just lying around like a rag anyway,” he said.

“Alphonse, what’s going to happen to me?” Alicia slipped her fingers beneath her spectacles. The tears she rubbed away only caused her eyes to redden. “The man’s dead. He died in my apartment and they’re going to blame me.”

“Calm down, Alicia.” He turned her to the direction of the bathroom. “First things first. Get changed. Everything will be alright.”

She held the rough fabric in her fingers as though testing if it were safe, and moved across the apartment with such delicacy that both Ed and Al paused to see if she would faint.  

The phone rang. The brothers looked at each other. Ed answered the phone. Fuery apologized for bothering Ed and said the general was still waiting for him at Park Avenue with the warning that he was now on short fuse.

"Well, tell the bastard with the god-complex that Al got injured due to a fucking leak in my apartment." The harshness of his own tone struck him, and he rubbed his eyes as though that would ease his temper. "Sorry, Fuery. it's just been a bad night. Or morning."

Fuery chuckled. "No worries, major. I've been in the military long enough to differentiate bad temper from bad people."

"Thanks."

"Would Alphonse need medical attention?"

"Nah, he's fine. What good would university be if he couldn't stitch his own wound, right? Tell Mustang I'll be in Park Avenue in a bit," he said. "And Kain, who's with you at the office?"

"Gordon is, sir. She's just about to report to Lawton Street."

Ed noticed Alicia standing beside Alphonse. She had tucked in the shirt to her loose, brown slacks kept in place by a brown leather belt, and it didn't seem like an awkward fit at all. "Kindly ask her to drop by the police station,” he said. “I believe we're already on the lookout for an Alicia Melker and she's on her way there now."

 


	3. Chapter 3

Alphonse in armor wouldn't have made such a fuss. Ed reminded himself that was because Alphonse in armor was incapable of the full length of human emotions.

He felt anger, yes, but not the quickening of his breath in an attempt to sustain self-control. He felt anxiety, yes, but not the tension it rippled across the human muscles. Now Al in his human form felt everything, and it was only through the two and a half years of practice that Ed understood his brother was not less clever, only still a little bit incapable of overriding his emotions with logic.

He glanced at the clock. It was now a good thirty-five minutes since Mustang woke him up with a phone call.

"I'm not letting her go where she might end up in danger," Al said.

"Do you seriously think she's any safer here?"

"At least I can defend her," he said. "It's either that, or I go with her."

Ed eyed her half-hidden behind his brother. She could make herself look innocent, but he was not disqualifying the possibility that she could've lured Al to her apartment and he had been the target. "How about you go to the team in Park Avenue and assess the array at the back of the corpse's head on my behalf? I'll escort her to the police station. In case somebody saw you out tonight or questions your wound, we have a cover story."

Al's expression softened. "She's not an alchemist, Ed. They'll definitely question the alchemic traps I set up. Admitting I was there doesn't immediately prove anything."

"If somebody recognizes the array on the dead man's palm as a twisted form of human transmutation and finds out I'm your brother, then there's a whole bunch of inquiries we'll both go through because you were at the scene of the crime," Ed said. "Worse, by the time the investigation is in full-swing, I'll also be treated as a civilian. It'll also be less troublesome to fend off any pursuant with a throwing knife if he's chasing someone from the military. They expect me to defend civilians like her."

Alicia touched Al's forearm to get his attention. She opened and closed her mouth in a couple of false starts before getting her thoughts straight. "They'll be looking for me, Al. There's no use in hiding. I've got you mixed up in enough trouble already."

"She’s right,” Ed said.

Al frowned at him. “The general can put this case under the military's jurisdiction, right?"

"I hate that I know this, but technically the police is just another division meant to deal with civilian bullshit." Ed grabbed his spare coat and tossed it towards Alicia. "There shouldn't be much of a hassle with escalating this case to the military proper. It seems to be headed that way since Mustang ordered me to assess the array."

“What happens once I’m there?” she asked.

“We’ll figure it out along the way.” He transmuted the door back to normal. “We’re running out of time.”

Alicia shrugged on the coat. It hung loosely on her small frame. She tugged at her hair that was pinned between the coat and her collar. Al gave her a gentle prod towards Ed. "You're safe with brother. If there’s anybody you can trust with your life, it’s him. I'll catch up with the two of you in a bit, ‘kay?."

The confidence Al put in him removed any annoyance he felt at his behavior. Compassion was not Ed's strongest suit; although he had many a time saved strangers during their travels. But saving people in danger was more a moral reflex than a choice. It was always Al who had the heart to defend people nobody else would defend, and make them feel as though they deserved all the trouble he would go through for their safety.

Ed checked the corridors before waving Alicia over to tail him. He noted her light footsteps on the staircase and the rustle of clothes as she moved, wary in case he was right and this was a set up. Their attempt at human transmutation and the succeeding feats they performed in search for the Philosopher's Stone tended to attract the most twisted minds. He found that in this world, the easiest way to survive was to withhold trust until it was due.

A glimpse at one of the windows they passed by showed a sky already a light shade of blue. There should be enough early birds in the streets to make it safe to exit through the front of the building. With a curse under his breath, he discarded this notion and reached blindly behind him to pull Alicia towards the backdoor. He couldn’t take risks.

His abrupt stop caused her to collide with him. Ed muttered a half-hearted apology, unable to mind little nuisances while assessing the street. She straightened her spectacles and looked around as well. Ed gripped her wrist and told her they were going to run. Alicia hadn't voiced her consent yet when Ed lunged forward and broke into a sprint, dragging her along.

The first rays of morning light were breaking through the parts of the sky still streaked with black. Ed mapped out the city in his mind, trying to remember which shortcuts to take to make his way faster to the police station. Behind him, Alicia took big steps to keep up.

A couple of turns here and there and Ed could see the automail shop Winry frequented in Zala street. The police station should be five buildings down. He staggered to a halt and, once again, Alicia collided with him. Instead of falling backwards, Ed's sudden turn made her slip sideways. He caught her with one arm, and she gripped the collar of his coat to carry her own weight.

"Hey, now," he said as he tried to steady her on her feet, "are you alright?"

She reached for the wall behind Ed and pressed her forehead against it. "It's my fault. I hate physical exertion. I swear I would’ve died earlier if Al hadn’t dragged me."

“Why was he in your apartment anyway?”

“I wasn’t expecting him,” she said. “He wanted to ask me something which sounded urgent, but he never got around to it. The man barged in and-and he…”

He thought it would be easier to glean an answer from her, but even what sounded like the truth didn’t bring him any closer to the reason Al was being vague. His little brother normally would’ve divulged him every important detail by now given the situation.

Ed gripped her shoulders to straighten her up. “"You'll have to walk into the police station on your own. I'll stay behind to keep watch. Lt. Gordon will arrive there soon to look out for you. If they ask where you've been, say you ran out of the apartment after the man forced his way in. You were wandering around in shock until you found your way to the police station, okay? Brigadier-General Mustang should intervene soon enough to get you under the military's jurisdiction. Stall until then. Hey, are you listening?"

Alicia nodded. She pinched her paling face. "I-I could say I want to talk to somebody I trust, right?"

Ed stared at her, unsure what she was suggesting. Noticing his confusion, Alicia stuttered, "I-I can say I have - I mean, that there's a friend I have from the university whom I trust – referring, of course, to Alphonse - and he, in turn, has a brother who is a State Alchemist and I don't want to talk to anybody but you. Or maybe I can just say I know you from university? That’s how I come about asking to speak with you instead? Is it too obvious that I’m intent not to mention Al?"

He couldn't tell where suspicion was overwhelmed by sympathy at her distraught state, but he certainly couldn't help himself from grinning at the cleverness of her idea. "Right. That should get the police to require me to be there. Good. Now you have to hurry."

Alicia took off her coat and handed it back to Ed. He insisted that it was too cold to be walking around without a coat and they wouldn't be able to trace it back to him anyway, but she said, "I wouldn't have had time to grab one. I ran out in a hurry, remember?"

"...Right."

"Mr. Elric," she said. "If somebody suddenly throws a knife at me while I'm walking?"

Ed scanned the street again, schooling his expression to prevent her from seeing his dismay at the fog that was just beginning to lift. Al and Alicia may have lost whoever was chasing them, but that didn't mean they wouldn't have thought of waiting to see if she'd go to the police. "I won't hear the end of it from Al if I let you get scratched," he said. "I'll shadow you. Far enough not to be seen but close enough in case you'll get attacked."

"That's as good an offer as I'll get, I suppose." She hastened out of the alley without waiting for Ed's signal. He watched her from a distance as she ambled across the street and headed for the police station. None of the handful of people there paid her any attention. Ed tried to blend in by walking at their pace while keeping an eye on Alicia, who was at the edge of the opposite sidewalk. Once she had disappeared into the station, Ed found the nearest payphone and got on a secure line to Mustang's office.

“Hello?”

"This is Edward.”

Fuery gave a nervous chuckle. "You do know the general will roast all of us alive since it appears you're still not in Park Avenue?"

"Is Lt. Gordon in the police station?"

"She should be arriving in five minutes. She walked," he said. "Major, how did you know Alicia Melker was on her way there?"

'I'll explain once we're all in the office. Thanks, Fuery."

Ed leaned back on the wall of the telephone booth to allow himself a minute to think things through. Al defending a friend of his was not surprising, but for him to secure her home with alchemy and check on her so frequently suggested Al could've guessed the degree of danger she was in but was uncertain until the attack. Still, he couldn't fathom why Al would've kept such a thing to himself.

He smoothed out the paper where he drew the transmutation circle copied from the man's palm. He raised his head and looked in the direction Alicia Melker had disappeared to.

 

* * *

 

 

Al checked the array scorched onto the back of the corpse's head. The fog at Park Avenue lifted, and the gloom had gone with it as well. An ambulance sheltered an injured cadet. A nurse checked her over for injuries apart from the gash on her forehead that had already been stitched up.

He overheard Breda telling Fuery over the radio that he wouldn't have interfered with two men brawling if he were her, which gave Al a clear picture as to how she got wounded in the first place.

Lt. Colonel Hughes patted her shoulder and signaled for the nurse to proceed to take her to the hospital.

"Ring any bells?" Lt. Hawkeye knelt beside Al to look at the array. "We were hoping Edward could come here quickly, but we're glad it's you at least. The police will take the corpse away in a while once everything has been photographed. We still have to file a motion for this case to be transferred to the military proper. Cruel as it may sound, an injured military cadet helps in that regard."

He looked around. "Lt. Hawkeye, is there a reason apart from the involvement of a military cadet and the presence of a suspicious array that necessitates both a general and a high-ranking Intelligence officer to be here?"

She rose to her feet and touched her stomach by reflex. Realizing this, she moved her hand to the butt of her gun before anybody noticed. "It's best we save this discussion for a more private setting."

One thing was for sure though - the police wouldn't give the military a hard time getting full jurisdiction the second the arrays were proven to be suspicious and possibly threatening. The last time they refused to cooperate with the State regarding a civilian case related to alchemy, the serial killer managed to prey upon at least ten people and create one successful chimera that had decision-making skills. The police force was nearly disbanded for it.

The general stood beside him with his arms crossed, either from the cold or from irritation. "Picked up anything interesting, _Fullmetal_?"

Al’s arrival had startled Mustang the most. Over two years of physical interaction and he still had trouble differentiating him and his brother in an instant, perhaps because he, like the rest of their acquaintances, never anticipated him to look so much like Ed from certain angles.

When Mustang did recognize him, however, his irritation was undeniable. He questioned Edward’s absence, and the tone of his voice suggested he already suspected something had happened for him to be kept from his tasks. Not that Ed had always been prompt, but they had worked together for such a long time, the suspicion must've clung to him like instinct.

He took advantage of the police force's obliviousness to Ed’s exact looks and started referring to Al as 'Fullmetal', just to avoid questions as to why he would let a civilian study a corpse.

"The elements are similar to that of human transmutation, but the purpose is kind of...off," Al said.

"Off?"

"Even in human transmutation, the flow of energy and the purpose should still be clear in the array. A part of it should suggest the collective composition of the object to be reconstructed or created so it's also clear to the alchemist how he should distribute the alchemic energy. Then there's decomposition or extraction from the source material so it could proceed to reconstruct or create. This stops at the second phase, which achieves nothing as far as the laws of basic alchemy goes."

"Hence the elements of human transmutation?" Mustang said.

"Yes, they're all pointing to the components that make up the human body but..." Al pressed his lips together to stifle a wince. The sting of his injury made him swallow and wipe the cold sweat lingering on his hairline. He asked Lt. Hawkeye for a pen and piece of paper. As he copied the design for reference, a tiny detail he hadn't noticed before became apparent.

Lt. Colonel Hughes' boots appeared in front of Al, forcing him to tip his head back to see his face. Hughes pushed his glasses up his nose bridge and smiled. "Fullmetal, I've just received interesting news. It appears a certain ‘Alicia Melker’ has appeared at the police station along with Lt. Gordon. You've apparently also visited the scene of the crime at Lawton Street. Care to explain what happened and where Alphonse is?"

They sat in the car with Lt. Hawkeye at the driver's seat, the general beside her, and Hughes to his right in the passengers' seat. He had no choice but to narrate the events of the recent hours from when he checked on Alicia to when Ed took her away to the police station.

Lt. Hawkeye eyed him from the rear-view mirror. Hughes brushed his hair back and scratched the back of his ear. "Al, I'm not saying it's not admirable what you did for Melker, but you have to understand that every act of compassion that results in you going out of your way for her needs a valid motivation for us to believe. What made you go so far for her out of a hunch that she was not making it up in her head?"

Al kept his gaze fixed out of the window. The first time he met her, she had been cooped up in the library hiding a book on alchemy within a hard-bound textbook on human anatomy. Any alchemist could determine from afar that the scribbles on the page she was shielding with her shoulder was about an array. He approached her from behind, commenting on the specific command she was studying as he sat on the chair across from her.

Alicia jumped on her seat. The books fell to the floor. She scrambled to collect them and left without a word. His determination to apologize the next day led to their formal introduction, and later to her requesting that he kept her interest in alchemy a secret.

He caught her several times afterwards drafting an array on a piece of paper. They were harmless commands, as far as he was concerned, and more than once he bumped into other students trying out alchemy as though it were magic. He only confronted her when, in a chance encounter inside an empty classroom, he glimpsed an array on the margin of her book that was far from harmless.

They spent hours that night in a pocket park. He listened to her narrate what piqued her curiosity in alchemy. She was nearly in tears convincing him that she was not attempting anything besides deciphering fragments of memories she had of an array.  He remembered how cold her fingers were when she placed them on his hand and begged him not to report her. “They’ll take away my scholarship. This is the only thing I have. Please be kind to me.”

The kindness of keeping her secret evolved into a friendship bound by his silence. Now he had no choice but to speak up. He comforted himself with the fact that he was doing it as a means to keep her safe. Besides, these were people trusted.

Al turned to Hughes. "I’ve got reason to believe her interest in alchemy stems from having been acquainted with my father a while back. I’m not sure yet of how they came to know each other and why dad took interest in her, but the things she wants to know about alchemy led me to suspect that her paranoia is not baseless, as dad’s influence is so widespread that different people could still be after him or what he left behind after his death."

Hughes schooled his expression into something of calm, but the lines around his mouth suggested deep thoughts that bordered on concern. "Does Edward know?"

"It was nothing alarming yet," Al said. "Nothing that brother needed to worry about. I only went out of my way to visit her tonight because things changed. After the celebration, Ed told me about the program which Lt. Hawkeye would be heading.  Alicia’s been looking into orphanages these past months, although I haven’t got a clue why. She doesn’t know that I’m aware. I went to tell her tonight that she might be pursuing something dangerous."

The general propped his elbow on the backrest and shifted on his seat to look at him. "Ed suspects human transmutation could’ve been responsible for the disappearances of the orphans. Was her research in alchemy inclined towards that taboo?"

"The details she remembers about dad’s do, although I’ve done my best to discourage them. State scholars aren’t allowed to be tampering with those things.”

"You haven't answered my question, Al," Hughes said. "Have you informed Edward?"

Al hadn't told Edward for the sole purpose of not upsetting him further with the mention of their father. He knew it triggered unpleasant memories for him, and he could not bear worsening the nightmares Ed had that caused him to scream and thrash around at night in an attempt to drive away the hands from the Gate that were no longer reaching out for him. "I couldn’t bring myself to tell him, especially anything about father...." he said.”I'm not the only one who needed to recover after the Promised Day."

Lt. Hawkeye slowed the car upon turning to Zala Street. She pointed at the nearby phone booth. "There's Edward."

He ambled towards the car and leaned over the open window on Al’s side. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Perfectly fine. You?"

"No trouble on the way here." He made a two-fingered salute to Hughes. "Lt. Colonel, remember warning me once about the dangers of being too merry? I'm starting to believe it's true."

"Get inside the car, Edward." Lt. Hawkeye rolled down her own window to lean over and see him better. "Al's told us the gist of what happened, but you've got some explaining to do yourself."

Al opened the door for him and he scooted in, a spare coat on the nook of his elbow. He saw him stare and said, "That girl's sharper than she looks. She was out of it while I was giving her instructions as to how to handle the police, and just when I thought she couldn't go through with it, she stutters something brilliant."

"That better be as brilliant as your tone suggests, Fullmetal, because I've barely slept and my patience can't bear nicely with insubordination," Mustang said.

Ed shot him a look through the rear-view mirror. "She can say she won’t talk to anyone she doesn't trust and then demand to see me. It’s easy to lie that we met in university."

Hughes sighed. "That’s not a clear-cut solution, but it’s the quickest way, I suppose."

Lt. Hawkeye turned to Mustang. "Gordon is smart enough to have made her visit there look like she was asked to coordinate with the police to make sure the official reports are shared with the military. It's her job to secure those kinds of documentations for us."

"Better we head back to Eastern Command and wait for a phone call from the police," Mustang said. "They'll be expecting to endorse this to us within the day. And let's hope your brilliant girl, Fullmetal, is also firm on her resolve to speak only to you. The police will want to grill her. If she can't take the heat, they would've already gotten the entire truth out of her and I'll be spending the rest of the day trying to fish you and Alphonse out of this mess."

 

* * *

 

They entered the office to find Fuery with a tired but broad grin. Headphones hung askew on one ear while a receiver was pressed on the other.

Roy headed straight for the coffee maker. "What's worth grinning about, Fuery?"

"The chief inspector's been awoken and he's in a terrible mood - much like you, sir." He listened on the headset and jotted something down on a sheet of paper. "An officer is reporting that there's a chance the jurisdiction would have to be surrendered to the military, but they are holding on to their reins as it's always possible to solve this case without needing the assistance of state-certified alchemists."

Ed grabbed Roy’s cup of coffee. "You tapped into the police line?"

"Won't they find out?" Al asked.

Roy restrained himself from pouring the rest of the coffee over Fullmetal's head. Already, Riza's permission to name their child after him was beginning to itch at the back of his mind. "They probably have an idea, that’s why the chief inspector will end the call and later berate the idiot who called him outside a secure line."

"And the call's ended." Fuery switched to another headset. "It's really the simple mistakes of the underlings that give them away."

"Whoever that was will be fired soon," Roy said. "Only an idiot would try to withhold this case from us after the disaster with that thinking chimera. They've forgotten we're their superiors." He handed a glass of cool water to Riza. Alphonse was quick to give up his seat and roll it towards her. She accepted both but reciprocated with a frown. "I’m fine. Just tired."

Hughes marched into the office waving a photograph in the air with one hand and holding a chicken sandwich in the other. He cut himself short of what he was saying when he saw Riza aseat with a glass of water. He offered her the sandwich.

"What's that you're holding?" Roy grabbed the sandwich from him and placed it on Riza's lap. She hardly had two hours of sleep when they were awoken with the news of the corpses, and she now looked worn when she once looked sharp even after going on awake for more than twenty-four hours.

Hughes took the cue to leave Riza alone and showed the photo to Alphonse. "Is this your gal?"

The photo showed an olive-skinned girl with fine cheekbones. Her eyes had a depth to them that were beyond her years, some kind of loneliness that made Roy nostalgic of war. Whatever the past of this girl, she did a good job letting the weight of it show in her eyes. "Where'd you get that, Hughes?"

"My men managed to retrieve her file from the list of state scholars." He produced a folded sheaf of papers from inside his uniform and dropped them on the table. "We can't get our hands on her complete documents but Lopez and Dante are picking apart what available data we have of her. Anything you can add will help, Al.”

"...She isn’t exactly keen on sharing her life story with anyone, so I haven’t made much progress in that arena.” Al pursed his lips and closed his eyes. Fuery noticed this, too, and asked if he needed medical attention. Ed requested for the first-aid kit. He insisted on replacing the bandages with higher quality ones from the military.

“Since that’s the case, we’ll have to compel her to speak up once she’s here. I didn’t announce my rank and flash my pocket watch five times to a rather dumb officer just to be met with silence from a little girl,” Roy said.

Riza brewed another round of coffee, and when he raised his eyebrow at her, she lifted her forefinger. Once a day, the doctor said, and nothing too strong. She had methodically replaced their supply of beans in the past months to avoid complaints from the staff. She reasoned if ever they discovered her plot, they’d be happy to know it was for their baby.

"So what's the real reason you were there?" Ed asked.

"I've managed to blur the details of the assassination attempt on Dr. Marcoh when the report was escalated to the fuhrer," said Hughes, "All that’s stated there is that someone assaulted Dr. Marcoh, Scar defended him, and an Ishvalan warrior shielded Scar and died. The truth is that the Ishvalan ended up with an array at the back of his head shielding Dr. Marcoh.”

“Better to say he defended another Ishvalan than risk stirring all kinds of stories from war-lovers.”

Roy had to stop and focus on his breathing when news of the attack reached him yesterday. He knew he owed Scar for his quick thinking. They had been through war once – it was more than enough. “Scar deformed his head to avoid the trouble it will cause and promised to give us a copy of the design. Havoc is on his way there to retrieve it as we speak." He gestured to Al with his mug of coffee. “"We've got an assassination attempt, a strange girl, and two dead corpses to connect. It’ll help if your brother knows what you told us, Alphonse. Finding out how Alicia Melker is related to these crimes would be a good start for the entire team.”

Edward finished re-bandaging Al’s arm. He dropped his hands on his knees and looked at his brother with patience reserved only for kin. “I’m listening.”

Al cradled his injured arm in a mixture of embarrassment and reluctance. "She’s been researching alchemy, but she doesn’t know the designs she remember correspond to human transmutation. I promised to keep her probing a secret just so I’d know what she’s really up to. When I peeked at her notes, there are pages just scribbled with the word Van Adium. Her diagrams point back to it, and her notes circle around figuring out why a man would use that alias. Then it struck me one day when she told me I looked exactly like a mysterious man who saved her once.”

The connection hit Roy like lightning. "The twenty-third element. Vanadium."

"Slave Number 23 from Xerxes - Van Hohenheim,” Ed said. "How are they acquainted?"

"I was building my rapport to get to the bottom of things by entertaining her paranoia. She said something about wanting to protect herself, and somehow I managed to get her to talk about her constant fear of being stalked. I wouldn't have volunteered to put security measures around her apartment if not for the hunch that Van Adium was dad and she’s in trouble for simply knowing him."

Hughes nodded as he absorbed this information. "You said Alicia was looking into orphanages. Was there anything in particular about her search that made you presume it’s connected to the program?"

Al, after a moment of thinking, shook his head. "She said her parents died in a train accident when she was young, but didn’t say exactly what year or how old she was then. I supposed it was unlikely for her to be part of the Orphans of War since all the children died, but whatever relationship she had with dad could lead to that if she remembers him best through his alchemy. It’s not impossible for him to have stumbled on that program."

Riza skimmed through her profile. “That train accident happened over two years ago, around the same time Mr. Hohenheim passed away. I can’t imagine under what circumstances she met him and why she’d be interested in orphanages when it doesn’t say in her record that she was in one.”

“Even if she was in an orphanage, it couldn’t have been under the program.”

“Do you suppose dad was involved in the Orphans of War?” Al asked.

 “Why should he? He was already the fucking stone.” Ed ran a hand across his face. “And even if he was, why involve Alicia Melker? I say it’s more likely her parents were involved.”

“I doubt Alicia knows why she’s in danger as well, or else she’d have done something more drastic to defend herself.”

“Let’s not forget that she could also be related in some way to Dr. Marcoh.” Hughes tapped the back of his head. “The same method of attack confirms it’s the same enemy. Anything the doctor and this scholar of ours have may give us a solid lead.”

The conversation between the three men dribbled into observations with regards to Melker’s standing at the university, what Al knew of her daily life and relatives, and other miniscule details that could shed light on the nagging questions about her existence. In the middle of this exchange, Roy touched Riza's elbow and motioned for her to go with him to the inner office. She dusted the crumbs of the sandwich from her uniform and downed the remainder of the water.

"I understand you don't want to miss out on work," he said after the door had clicked close behind him. "But it would be to my peace of mind if you snag a couple of hours of sleep while we're at the police station. It shouldn't be long now before they ask for Fullmetal."

Riza made her way to the couch and lied down. Her lack of protest made him follow her to see if she was okay. She piled two pillows behind her head and closed her eyes. "If anything happens, don't hesitate to wake me. It might take a coupe of shakes, though, because I've never felt this beat even during the war."

Roy pulled the curtains close and started the fire. By the time he finished warming the place for her, she was already breathing deeply with her mouth half-open. He swept her bangs aside and planted a kiss on her forehead. As much as he wanted to watch her sleep, he had work to do.

He returned to the outer office to find Breda catching up with the latest developments. Ed had slouched low over his knees while holding his forehead. Judging by the look on Al's face, the older Elric took it as a blow to not have been entrusted with the information early on.

Hughes sat quietly on the chair Riza used to occupy, his blank stare in mid-air giving way for his mind to envision the possible troubles and solutions ahead of them. He saw Roy from the corner of his eye and pulled him aside. "Is the lieutenant okay?"

"Sleeping like a little girl."

"Good," he said. "One concern down and more to go."

Roy massaged his eyelids. "Tell me about it."

"Your doctor-in-distress in Ishval seems to be involved in bigger trouble," he said. "Scar did us a huge favor. If anybody else knew that the array on the victim who died protecting Dr. Marcoh has shown up here in East City, we'll have our hands full just trying to persuade the brass that this is worth all the trouble we're getting ourselves in."

"It doesn't help that Fullmetal's officially gone by the weekend."

Hughes followed his gaze towards the brothers. "I understand we've all been helping Edward prep for life after retirement, but recent developments show it might not be in his best interest to leave the military yet. His father's involvement in Alicia Melker’s life and the subsequent attack on her from the likely people who attacked Dr. Marcoh may put them in danger or under question, and it would be to their advantage to have one of them with military superiority."

"Unfortunately, Ed's not gifted in looking that far ahead in the future. Persuading him this early on may not be beneficial considering his current stress with Alphonse," Roy said. "It'll be easier to keep him from taking rash actions if we stay quiet about our opinions for now. Besides, getting the girl under our jurisdiction will shed light to how big our problem really is."

Lt. Gordon entered the office with a swift salute to her superiors. "I returned to relay the request of Chief Inspector Hastings for the Fullmetal Alchemist to assist in the interrogation of Ms. Alicia Melker."

“How is she?” Al asked.

“The officer who approached me was the epitome of frustration. It’s safe to say Ms. Melker is being stubborn to our benefit.”

Roy nodded at Hughes. "Any word of advice on dealing with the chief inspector?"

"He's a graduate of the military academy but chose instead to deviate to the police force," he said. "Previous dealings with him tell me he's not like the other chief inspectors who want to be in competition with the military. He's more concerned about doing things right and mending the strain between the two institutions. I doubt he'll give you a hard time if you provide enough evidence to persuade him that it's in his best interest to hand over the case to the military. He's already got enough issues to work with given the boom in East City's population in the past years."

"Let's hope he's not greedy with the city's problems then.” Roy donned his overcoat and felt for the buttons of his uniforms to make sure all were in place. "If we don't come out of there with the girl, make the paperwork as discreet as possible about the connection to Dr. Marcoh. We can't let the day end without getting full jurisdiction."

"Got it." Hughes patted Ed’s shoulder before heading out.

Ed and Al rose to their feet. Roy motioned for Al to return to his seat. "You stay here, Alphonse. You've already taken steps to cover up your presence from the scene of the crime. It wont' help us if they've got you to interrogate as well."

Ed straightened the collars of his coat. "And why are you coming along with me?"

"Interrogations aren't your specialty, Fullmetal." He slipped on his gloves. "And we have to be consistent. Your upcoming retirement gives me the perfect excuse to be there."

Ed rolled his eyes. He returned his attention to Al, who was looking down at his leather shoes like a schoolboy awaiting reprimand. "Get some rest," he said. "Once she's here, you'll probably be the only person she'll feel comfortable enough to be honest to. It's kinda hard to confide in someone who looks beat from the weight of the world."

He smiled wanly at Ed. "Good point."

Breda took the keys from Havoc's desk. "I'll drive you. The office would be a mess if you leave Lt. Hawkeye's tasks to me instead of Gordon."

Sunrise had already swept the city by the time they stepped out into the open corridors. Roy arranged the cuffs of his uniform and brushed his hair away from his eyes. Ed, surprisingly, was also fixing himself. He had pulled his hair back on a tight ponytail and tucked his shirt in. For all his childish taunts towards Ed, his maturity was becoming more difficult to ignore. Where he would once march anywhere unkempt with only his sharp intellect to rely on, he now minded his appearance as proof of his awareness that people judged looks first.

Roy sat beside Breda and Ed slipped in at the back. "I have to commend you, Fullmetal. Your assessment of your girl was on point."

Ed glared at him from the rear-view mirror. "She's not my girl."

"Oh? Then is she Al's?"

His expression softened. "I don't think so. Hohenheim's involvement justifies his actions. Al must've thought there was something to it if the old man bothered to be acquainted with her."

"What about the arrays?"

"I'll need to sit on it to get an answer."

"We haven't got enough coverage of the crime scenes to know who was after who and for that."

Breda slowed down as the car neared the gate. The guards opened it, and they entered the thickening traffic surrounded by crowds of people wanting to get ahead in the morning rush to work. "That's the thing, sir," Breda said all of a sudden. "The two dead men didn't appear to be accomplices."

"I thought as much as per the cadet's narrative, but I didn't get the privilege to visit Lawton Street due to Fullmetal taking liberties as he saw fit. What are your observations?"

"Cadet Myers reported to have intervened at what she thought was a brawl between two drunkards, but knew better when she saw a flash of alchemy," he said. "Somehow, one of the men managed to slice her forehead while she tried to apprehend them, and she was blinded by the blood to see clearly what happened next. What she was sure of was that there was a splash of water, and seconds later a dying scream - most probably from Park Avenue corpse."

"The dead man in the apartment - he died of electrocution because he was drenched when a rather harmless array Al left there struck him," Ed added. “I assume he was on some kind of mission to either kill Alicia or abduct her, because there was someone who attacked Al and her when they ran out of the building.”

Roy cupped his face as he gazed out the window. “It doesn’t sound right. The Lawton Street corpse made a daring entrance. It’s as though all that mattered to him was getting his work done without considering the consequences of getting caught. Having accomplices in the shadows is an utter contrast to this.”

“How many men did they think they needed to take down one girl, right?” Breda said.

“Unless they’ve been observing her and knew who Al was.”

“Al’s visit was random. And if these men in the shadows were doing their jobs right, they would’ve warned the fried alchemist instead of letting him barge in there drenched,” Ed said. “I can’t remember how many times I’ve brought down an opponent so easily because they’re soaked.”

“It would be best to keep that information to yourself while we’re in the police station, Fullmetal.”

Breda parked on the sidewalk behind a police car. Roy instructed him to remain outside as two State Alchemists in their territory was going to leave more than a bad taste in their mouths for the rest of the week.

He  mustered an expressionless façade – something that he had donned frequently in the years he had worked his way up the military ladder. Body language was everything in a world where everybody was careful of what rolled off their tongues.

Ed trailed behind him with his hands shoved deep in his coat pockets and his face impassive.

"The fastest way out of here is to get her to tell a story the police can work with - and then find something to either make her a military asset or prove she’s a victim," Roy said.

"D'you have any plans on how we'll do that?"

"We improvise as we glean the information we need. If she's smart and desperate to get out of this mess with the police, then she'll let you guide her into saying the right things." Roy paused when officers passed by them. "And remember that although the police are wary where alchemy is involved, they'll be expecting us to stick to our job and deliberate whether there's reason to believe they have to surrender jurisdiction to us."

"You know, Mustang, I can just say there's a touch of human transmutation to the arrays and then the entire case will be handed over to us.”

"That requires paperwork and time, not to mention the hassle of the added scrutiny from outsourced alchemists the police gets." He frowned at Ed. "They don’t want to repeat past mistakes, but that doesn't mean they want to be undermined by the military as well. We need answers from Alicia Melker, so if you can manage to translate that into something that will get her transferred to us, all the better."

Roy pushed the door open and gained the attention of the policewoman behind a desk. She stood and cleared her throat to get the attention of a brawly old man who was leaning over a cup of coffee. The man raised his eyebrow at her and turned towards them.

He took another sip of coffee before approaching them and extending his hand out to Roy. "Brigadier-General Mustang, I’m Chief Inspector Hastings. I cannot lie - it's not pleasant to meet anybody of your rank before I've had my first cup of coffee."

He eased a smile on his face. Hastings appeared to be the loud-mouthed type who tended to cover up his agenda with his bold words. "No worries, chief inspector. I feel the same way about the brass no matter how many cups of coffee I've had."

Hastings burst into laughter that echoed throughout the wide hallway of the police station. Officers taking in concerns from civilians on the opposite end of the hall paused from their jobs, distracted by their boss. "I'm sure we'll get along just fine especially since I'm not keen on taking in more cases right now and it's obvious you want this case escalated badly."

"Truth be told, we currently have our hands full with a high-traffic of concerns from the peace treaty with Ishval. _Badly_ applies only in as far as I want this case to be dealt with and closed as soon as possible.” Roy heard Ed grumble, perhaps in alarm at the implication made.

Hastings noticed him, too, because he sidestepped to look behind Roy. He asked if the bored-looking civilian was with him.

Roy had to suppress a frown upon hearing a trigger that could easily set of Ed's temper. "He may look that way but he's got one of the best brains in the military. Chief inspector, this is Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. I believe he's the one the girl..."

"Alicia Melker.”

"Yes, the one Ms. Melker wishes to speak to."

Edward looked on at the expanse of space filled with wooden benches and patrol officers coming in and out to change shifts. Hastings seemed uncertain as to how to react to Ed's indifference. He scowled at Roy, more to show his frustration at this awkwardness than to convey disapproval, and motioned to the corridor ahead. "Better to get this over with in a jiffy so we can discuss the best course of action to take. Right this way."

The police station was a well-kept institution in spite the hive of activity within its compound. Every turn they made, a handful or so of police officers stopped to salute their superior and then throw curious glances at him and Edward.

"The girl won't speak much," he said as they neared a door at the end the corridor. "We allowed her some time to calm down because she tottered into the station freezing and in a state of shock. A medic checked her over and said there was nothing physically wrong with her, but the frightened little thing looked sick to the gut. As of now, all we can conclude is that the two dead men had attempted to kill one another, with the other succeeding until he got burnt to a crisp with an array that set off in Ms. Melker’s apartment."

"I've heard about the arrays," Roy said. "What did she have to say about them?"

"She stared at Officer Megan as though she had no idea what he was talking about.”

"Have the corpses been identified?"

"I'm expecting to hear something in the next hour for the corpse in Park Avenue," he said. "Naming the one in Lawton Street will take more time, I’m afraid."

Roy stifled a yawn. "Her being a university student and acquainted with Fullmetal doesn't give me much to go on in forming an opinion of her. I suppose she must have some kind of record if she got herself involved in this mess."

"Squeaky clean - which isn't good when the attack on her apartment looks anything but random." He glimpsed Roy over his shoulder. "Although I'm sure you said that with an awareness that the worst criminals are those who go on for long without catching the attention of either the police or the military."

Hastings knew he was trying to get his opinion of Melker. Apart from a hint of compassion when describing the girl's state, he was being strategic with what information he fed him and Ed - saying a lot but only skirting the bare essentials. "Which makes caution all the more important in this case," Roy said with a shrug. "After all, she's a state scholar. It would be a dent to our pride if we've granted full scholarship on a possible hazard to the public."

He held the knob to the door but wouldn’t turn it. Instead, he looked at Edward. “By the way, Major Elric, do you happen to know why Ms. Melker asked specifically for you?”

Ed’s prolonged silence made Roy turn to him as well. Lying wasn’t new to him, and being put on the spot never rendered him speechless before. “Fullmetal?”

“Who knows? Maybe she doesn’t trust you,” he said.

Safe answer, Roy thought, but he didn’t have the liberty of expressing his relief. Instead he sighed and told Hastings it would be to everybody’s convenience if they hurried on with the interrogation.

In a well-lit but sparse room of white walls, white floor, and white furniture, Alicia Melker’s complexion made her stand out. Her skin was a shade darker than in the picture Hughes acquired. She was not as dark-skinned as Ishvalans; hers was a color that looked healthy, even attractive, in a crowd of average white Amestrians. Could she possibly have foreign blood?

Alicia jolted at the sight of Edward. A man whom Hastings addressed as Officer Megan entered the room soon after they did. He saluted his superior and nodded at Edward and Roy. To Edward, he said, "She wouldn’t tell us a thing besides the fact that she ran out of her apartment and she wants to speak only to you. Are you acquainted?”

“We attend the same university.” He turned to her with a bit of hesitation. “I heard what happened. Are you alright?”

She started with a nod, but was soon shaking her head. “Thanks for coming.”

Roy and Hastings stood at the side to observe. It was a manageable set-up, perhaps the best they could get given the circumstances. If the interrogation took a bad turn, he could always interrupt with something to steer it towards a path favorable to their goal.

“Now that Major Elric is present, can we finally ask you some questions, Ms. Melker?” Officer Megan gestured for Ed to take the seat beside him. “I understand you want to speak only to Major Elric but we can’t really allow that because this case is still under police jurisdiction. What happened in your apartment and in Park Avenue is a serious matter, and I hope that after we’ve done our best to comply with your demand, we can talk to you about these events without difficulty.”

Alicia removed her spectacles and put them on the table. “…Okay.”

Megan placed a black recorder in the middle of the table and clicked the red button. “Please state your full name.”

“Alicia Melker.”

“With your mother’s maiden name please.”

She cleared her throat. “Alicia Eriksson Melker.

“And how old are you?”

“Nineteen.”

“You’re one of the youngest State Scholars, if I’m not mistaken,” Megan said. “When did you get the prestigious scholarship?”

Alicia glimpsed Edward. She must be debating in her head the relevance of these preliminary questions. The build-up was significant for any interrogation, especially if they were attempting to unearth specific information. Roy hoped the anticipation wouldn’t overwhelm whatever cleverness Ed saw in her. He was sure now that they didn’t see her as entirely innocent if Megan had opted for his approach.

“I was seventeen when I passed.”

“That’s an amazing feat, Ms. Melker. How did your parents react to your achievement?”

She stared at him for a moment. She transferred her hands to the table, where she interlaced her fingers together in a tight grip. “They’re both dead. They were passengers in a train wreck. I applied for the scholarship primarily to get by.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Megan scribbled something in his notebook. “What did they do for a living?”

“They were both teachers. Language and Math.”

“Did the state allow you to choose whatever course you wanted to pursue?”

“Anything that requires a license.”

“Is the State responsible for your living arrangements?”

“The State gives us options for quarters. I chose one near the university. They pay for monthly rent so long as the scholarship is in effect.”

“How is the environment, Ms. Melker?”

She brushed her hair back and shifted on her chair. The stress was getting to her. “It used to be peaceful until all the petty crimes happened in the past months. Not to mention the talking creature that killed civilians. We've all been pretty scared since.”

“Is that why you have that array in your front door?”

Whatever irritation Alicia felt confident to show faded at the mention of the array. Roy noted how Ed refrained from crossing his arms against his chest. It was smart to be careful with body language now more than ever. Whatever Megan wouldn’t notice with his preoccupation with Melker, Hastings would surely see.

“It doesn't hurt to be extra safe,” she said. “A recent crime happened in the high-end part of the city where security was tight. There's no telling who can enter my building.”

Megan jotted this down. “Others would use alarms and other simpler methods. Yours is a little unique. Care to tell us where you learned alchemy and how long you've been practicing?”

“I don't practice alchemy. I read it in a book somewhere and thought it would be a good way to keep safe,” she said. “The alarms and bolts you mentioned all have easily detectable loopholes. Mine was more discreet - unexpected - and therefore more effective.”

“As far as I know from alchemists I've interacted with - including Major Elric here - it's possible to learn alchemy through books and such, but for a non-alchemist, it's a rather difficult task and quite abnormal. How do you know in the first place if what you're doing is correct? How did you test that security mechanism of yours? Did you also electrocute yourself in the process?”

The sudden sharpness in Megan’s tone did the trick. He moved so swiftly from neutral to accusatory that all Alicia could do for a moment was give him a half-hearted glare.

Ed’s blank gaze on the table didn’t comfort Roy at all. Was he feigning boredom, or was he actually fatigued and a little hung-over from their celebration? _C’mon, Fullmetal_. Even if the opportunity arose, Ed was the one in the position to speak first.

 “It was a leap of faith,” Alicia said. “You already know I live alone, don’t you?”

Megan leaned forward on the table, matching her earlier pose. “A leap of faith against the more sensible security systems? You see, Ms. Melker, we had to do an enquiry with your neighbors while you were presumed missing earlier. They all said nice things about you in spite of the fact that you mostly kept to yourself. You didn't appear to be in trouble with anyone. They don't see you bring friends, except for one neighbor, a Ms. Lacy, who noted seeing a blond male come and go to your apartment every now and then at peculiar hours. Care to name this friend of yours? Classmate, boyfriend, maybe someone you befriended to create this alchemic security system for you?”

The slow rise of Alicia’s shoulders as she held in her breath gave her away. She cast her gaze to Megan’s notebook and tried, with obvious effort, not to look at Edward.

Ed, just as Megan opened his mouth to press this topic, straightened up on his chair and said, “It’s me.”

Megan’s serious façade dropped in an instant. He blinked at Edward, mouth slightly agape. “Pardon, major?”

“I was the one who frequented her apartment,” he said. “Her place was the more sensible choice since she lived alone. We agreed to keep our relationship strictly sexual, after all.”


End file.
